Help
by wbelisabeth
Summary: Insert one tragic incident into Arizona's life and see where life takes her, putting MFEO to the test.  AU. Complete.
1. Not Just a River in Egypt

**Help 1 / 5**

**Title:** Help – Not Just a River in Egypt

**Author:** wbelisabeth

**Summary:** Insert one tragic event into Arizona's past and put MFEO to the test. AU.

**Words:** Story is under 10k. Chapter is under 2k

**Warnings/Spoiler/Important:** There are references to a lot of Callie/Arizona moments on the show, but they are usually small allusions, and not anything life changing. The references could include any episode ever aired, because that's just how I roll. **No season 7 spoilers.**

**Rating:** PG for the most part, I don't even think there is any swearing in this… very wholesome of me.

**Disclaimer for the whole story:** All copyrighted materials referenced within this fan-fiction are not mine. I do not own Grey's Anatomy or any characters of Grey's. This is for entertainment purposes only. I am not making any money out of this whatsoever. Any real people, places, events etc referenced in this work of fiction have been done so in an entirely fictional manner and is not meant to be libelous or defamatory.

**AN:** Thank you to ljuser Itsallcomealive who beta'd this for me. I really cannot thank you enough. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

**Chapter One: Not Just a River in Egypt**

She had been walking for days. Literally. She knew that she should have stopped, but that was days ago. DAYS ago. The things her parents had told her about being lost (ie. Stand still, don't walk away, let _them_ find _her_.) was debated for a small number of moments before completely throwing their advice out the window in a totally impulsive moment. She was starting to realise that it was her impulsive moments that seemed to be her downfall. Running off to Vegas. Kissing Erica. The long string of girls starting with Sadie Harris ending with the psychologist, Jenny, who eventually turned out to be an even bigger head case than all of her patients combined. Nope, Callie Torres needed to stop doing things so impulsively. She had survived out here for five days - if she was counting. She was hungry and thirsty and in need of a bath. Her friendship with Mark had always caused trouble and in the last few years, he had got her into a LOT of trouble, but this by far took the cake. She could die out here. She laughed off the idea. Callie Torres, Harper Avery Recipient dies in a Washington Forrest cold and alone. 'Maybe not so far from the truth' she admitted, silently to herself.

The last three trouble filled years had been hectic for her. Married, cheated on, gay, abandoned, oversexed, overworked, stalked and then shot, somewhere in between that she had managed to do enough research and enough experimentation to earn a Harper Avery, the first in Orthopaedics in twelve years. It was something that her father could be proud of, because apparently there wasn't much else. The whole gay thing had thrown him for a loop. Admittedly being caught in the throes with a nurse whose name she could barely remember was not a good way of introducing her father to her newfound lifestyle. She had cut him off and he had cut her off. No contact for over a year, including her birthday, Thanksgiving and Christmas until she was lying in a hospital bed after being shot by a dead patient's husband. She was a hero who had saved a child's life and apparently it was enough to shock her parents into speaking to her once again. Eventually she healed, but she still needed an outlet.

The no-sex pact had been working for the last couple of months and it was something she had credited the quality of her research with, but with the medical trial over with she had nothing to do. Mark was always one for the outdoors, making her go fishing and hiking with her because Derek was too busy with his wife. Mark suggested they go on a hike and she jumped at the idea to get away from the hospital. He was a little reluctant to plan such an intensive hike, after all she had only had major surgery a month previous, but Mark could never say no to Callie and so he was just another contributing factor to the mess that the brunette was now in.

She walked slowly, her full fitness had not returned added to the fact that she had been walking for five days, four hours and forty seven minutes, slow was about all she could do. She could feel consciousness fade a little, but she kept on hoping the next step would bring her closer to home. The next step she took did not, in fact lead her closer to home, but it did lead her closer to sea level. She fell what felt like 20 feet, in reality it was really closer to eight. It was upon reaching the bottom of wherever it was that she had landed, that Calliope Torres let consciousness fade away completely.

* * *

Darkness engulfed her. She had let it. She had shut out the world four years ago. Shut out laughter, shut out love, shut out life. She had first come to this place of serenity when she was only four years old, and the memories that she held for it had brought her back. This place had healed her some, of course she would never fully heal not from the things that had scarred her so wholly. She loved the weather here. She had loved the rain and the wind. She loved the three hour trip to the city, she loved that she could put her medical skills to some use, even if she was so isolated. She loved her new life or rather she loved that she could leave her old life behind so comfortably.

Her footsteps kept rhythm with her heart. Boom-boom, Left, Boom-boom, Right, Boom-boom, Left, Boom-boom, Right. She kept the beat. Even through the rough parts, past the tree roots and uneven ground it was there. She ran this trail every day. Like clock-work. Regimented. She used order as coping mechanism, she always had, and even when she had little to complain about, little to cope with, she still remained the ordered, organized person. Every step planned out. Boom-boom, Left, Boom-boom, Right, Boom-boom, Left, Boom-boom, Right. The light flickered through the trees, bathing her in sunshine. It was almost enough to remind her of those days when life made sense, when she would spend the hours at the beach or at the park with her family. Almost. Some things were buried too deep to ever see the light of day. She kept her pace, step after step. Boom-boom, Left, Boom-boom, Right, Boom-boom, Left, Boom-boom, Right. Therapy she told herself. It had nothing to do with the cabin fever she had been feeling since she had uprooted her life to a cabin in the middle of Washington somewhere. It had nothing to do with her vanity, her own requirement that she always had to look super hot naked. Even if no one was around to see it. Nope, it was therapy – or so she would lie to herself. The truth was that therapy is about facing the truth, and that was something that Arizona Robbins stopped doing four years ago. So while she was facing forward, it was just another way for her to run from the past. Boom-boom, Left, Boom-boom, Right, Boom-boom, Left, Boom-boom, Right. She knew the trail, she knew the slope, what she didn't recognize was the soft cries for help a few feet off the path. She also didn't know that the pit where the voice was coming from existed.

That is, until she fell into it.

"AAaaaahhhhhh. Jeeeeee-pers."

Arizona immediately stopped. She felt searing pain and a twinge of anger at the intruder, until she looked closer at the woman who was crawling over to her. Even though the woman before her had tear filled eyes and a clammy complexion and though the blondes mind was clouded with pain she still thought 'this may just be the most beautiful sight I have ever seen in my life'.

"Are you ok?" Arizona couldn't answer. Not because she was dumbstruck by the woman in front of her, but because she feared that profanities may come tumbling out of her mouth and never stop if she even thought about opening her mouth. She shook her head to indicate the negative.

The brunette looked over at her leg and gasped.

"I really don't think you are ok. Does it hurt, apart from the leg?"

Another shake of her head. Another negative.

"I'm going to look it over, I am an orthopedic surgeon, so I've seen this sort of thing before, is it ok if I look over it?" Callie's energy had returned instantaneously when she was met with the sight of the disfigured knee.

This time she nodded, trying to smile, it came out as a wince. Callie knelt beside the blonde-haired woman and gently pressed against the leg, leaving the obviously dislocated knee well alone. The brunette eventually pressing on the leg a little too hard resulting in Arizona's body tensing up completely. Callie lifted her hand and stroked her cheek.

"It'll be ok." She whispered softly. She moved her hands down the leg, again adding pressure and feeling for any breaks.

"I'm Callie Torres." She looked up at the blonde. There was a small flash of recognition in the blondes eyes.

"Arizona Robbins." She managed to squeak out.

"So not to be rude or anything but when I was screaming for help, I had kind of hoped it would be in the form of me getting out of this place rather than getting company." Suddenly the pain over took her and the teasing tone that Callie had just used was ignored as anger stirred in Arizona.

"Help?" She asked angrily. She took a deep calming breath – it didn't help. "Help? Well be grateful anyone even knows you are ali– AAAAaaaahhhh. WHAT DID YOU DO?"

"I had to put it back in place."

"You just put it back?"

"Yeah. You may need surgery, but the longer the joint is out of its socket the worse it is, so… Sorry, but it's for the best."

"You're not… Calliope Torres, are you?"

"Calliope Torres?"

"Harper Avery, 2010?"

"Are you a surgeon too?"

"Nope, I… I'm just an interested party."

"Yes that's me. You can call me Callie."

"You made me fall down a ten foot ditch, I have to deal with the name Arizona, you have to deal with Calliope."

"I made you fall down?" She asked incredulously, but really feeling amused at the blondes statement.

"I run this path every day. For years I have run this path and not once have I fallen down this… this… hole. So yes YOU made me fall down. You are the only irregularity, the only variation, the only anomaly from my normal days, so using my awesome powers of deduction, I can safely conclude that YOU made me fall down."

"Ok then, it would seem that I made you fall down." She smiled a very amused smile.


	2. Rambling and Knowing

**Help 2 / 5**

**Title:** Help – Rambling and Knowing

**AN **- I was going to wait until I got more reviews and then I realised how ridiculous I was being - I didn't write this because I wanted reviews, I wrote this purely because I had a story to write and my hands were itching... I wrote it because I enjoy writing. So here is the next part, and there will be one a day until I finish posting the story. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. (And thankyou for the reviews I have recieved they definitely made my day.)

**Thanks again goes to Itsallcomealive bor the beta reading!**

"So do you live around here?"

"What?"

"You said you run here every day… you must live around here."

"About 2 miles North East."

Callie thought about for a few minutes.

"Isn't that forest?"

"Yep."

"You live in the forest?"

"Yep."

"Don't tell me you are one of those live-in-tree types. I had to fix every bone in a woman's body once because she was bulldozed out of a tree. Please tell me you don't poop in a bucket."

"What?"

"Does you're friend come along and clean your bucket and send you up food?"

"I live in a cabin?" She says not sure where the woman in front of here is taking the conversation.

"Oh… good. Wait! You live in a cabin by yourself?"

"Yeah."

"You don't have an array of axes or explosives do you?"

"I'm not an axe – murderer or some sort of terrorist bomber type if that is what you are alluding to."

"Why would you live so isolated? Don't you miss your family?"

"What are you doing out here?" Callie noticed the abrupt change of subject and winced internally. 'Obviously a saw point' she told herself.

"I'm out hiking with my friend."

"So where is your friend?"

"Hopefully speaking with the police and organising someone to find us."

"When did you get separated?"

"About five days ago."

"You've been walking for five days? You didn't think to maybe sit down and wait for him to find you?"

"I did, for about 3 seconds. Then I decided to try and find him."

"Let me guess he has the map and the compass?"

Callie winced again, this time at the stupidity of her actions. She knew now that she should have waited in the same spot until Mark had found her, which he would have. Now she had walked for 5 days, there was a lot more area that she could possibly be in and the search for her would be a lot more difficult.

"Yeah, but at least I had the food." She smiled a little. "So how long have you lived out here in woods, all alone like the Unabomber?"

"I've lived here 4 years."

"Four years? Whoa. Do you get to see many people?"

"I head into the city once a week, spend a couple of hours in there and come home. I see enough people."

"Do you have a job?"

"Am I interviewing for something?"

"Sorry, that was rude wasn't it? My mouth runs away with me. A lot. Like when I told the chief I was a rock star – that he'd rue the day, or when I told Mark and Sloane that I would help with her baby…." Realisation crosses her face, and vulnerability creeps into her voice. "Or like now, when I'm telling a complete stranger my whole life story."

"I work as a Medical Advisor to a TV show. I can do all my work over the internet."

"Really which TV show?"

"Uh… you know White's Anatomy?"

"Really I love that show! That's pretty cool." Callie realised how excited she was coming across, suddenly downplaying her excitement, so not to come across as complete stalker. "You know, for the axe-murdering type to have a day job."

"It pays the bills."

"So were you a doctor?"

"Hmm?"

"Well you are a medical advisor… you must be a doctor of some sort."

"I'm not a doctor. Not anymore. I'm just a writing assistant."

"So you were a doctor."

"A million years ago."

Callie noticed the hurt cross the smaller woman's face and decided to drop the subject. Her energy levels were dropping and she could feel the sheath of sweat formed all over her body. She moved slightly to stretch before realising that her wound must have re-opened. She was able to suppress her cry of pain, balling her fists tighter than she had ever before. The sharp intake of air did not go unnoticed by the blonde.

"Are you ok?"

"You know… I'm fine. Fine."

"It's just - you look upset."

She shook her head, both to indicate that she was fine and to shake the vague feeling of familiarity from her words.

"Calliope Robbins you get down here this instant!"

She looked up at the blue eyes and knew in an instant that when Callie Torres had made her promise to live, to live for her, she had made the right decision. The little girl that Callie had spoken about, dreamt about, loved without knowing, that little girl was smiling innocently back at her with dimples and blue eyes, both of which only serving to reinforce the appearance of innocence. Karma is Karma, she told herself thinking about Callie's words. Her own blue eyes and dimples had helped her wiggle her way out of trouble when she was a kid, her father melting at the sight of them. Karma indeed. The giggle of the four year old filled the room and despite her disapproval of the small girl jumping on the couch all Arizona could do was smile. When the tiny brunette jumped one last time before falling into the blondes arms screaming 'Mommy!', she could no longer keep her own laughter from filling the room.

This small package in her arms was the greatest gift she had ever been given. The tiny girl was her salvation, given to her by a stranger in the woods.

"Do you want kids?"

The blonde's eyes nearly popped out of her head.

"No…no. Nope, not me."

"I always did. Always, even before I was married."

"You're married?"

"Was. I married a safe person. I thought that he was safe. He was a good man and I thought that meant he would be a good husband. Turns out the safest thing I ever did, was also the most dangerous."

"You are not still married?"

"No. Apparently I'm not a supermodel."

"You are hot. I'd totally do you." Callie laughed a little.

"Ever heard of Bethany Whisper?"

"Oh SHE is hot."

"My point exactly."

"Huh?"

"I'm realizing now that she is more my type then he was, but it doesn't matter because either way Bethany Whisper slept with my husband."

"Bethany Whisper slept with your husband?"

"Yeah, apparently the Bethany Whisper ads were a way of putting herself through med-school to become a surgeon. She was best friends with my dead ex-husband. Toward the end of the marriage I just wanted a kid so my husband would think about me and not Izzie Stevens."

"That's why you wanted kids? So that your husband would think about you?"

"No, that's why I wanted kids with George. Doesn't matter anyway they are both dead."

"You didn't like have them killed or anything?" Callie laughed. The pout on her the blondes face was enough to make her laughter continue.

"No. Izzie, or Bethany as you know her, died of skin cancer, and he was hit by a bus saving a woman. The same day actually."

"Wow."

"Yeah, it's kind of romantic actually."

"Romantic? He cheated on you and then dies the same day as her and you're all roses are red?"

"They were best friends. He was a good man, despite his faults. It not like I was completely blameless in our break-up and I have cheated before so… I think it's nice. They'll have each other. I can understand if you think it's weird."

"No… I was just thinking, how much you seem to care. You care like crazy… I just… So you really want to be a Mom?"

"Yeah, I really do. I've always had this vision of a little girl, with bright blue eyes, my hair and skin but with big bright blue eyes. I had this feeling that George wasn't the one because of his eyes. When I started dating Erica I thought that maybe she was, she has nice eyes… they tended to be a little more grey than blue, they only got really blue when she was about to…" She realized that a stranger probably didn't want to know details about her sex-life.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa… hold up! You've based your type on some kid that you've imagined. You know that's kind of sick, right?"

"No I didn't base my type on the kid at all… I married a man who I thought I loved, even though I knew that I wasn't going to get my little girl out of it. It's just a dream I guess…What about you… What's your type?"

"I guess I would have to say brunettes. Every girlfriend I have ever had since Joanne, my first girlfriend, has been brunette. My last girlfriend would tell you that because I have control issues my type is women who are weaker and less intelligent than me. She said that's why they never work because I need an equal – a challenge."

"Shrink?" She asked with a knowing smile

"Of course." Arizona said with a laugh.

"When I dated a psychologist she told me that I was using sex as an escape – a coping mechanism were her words. That was after she stalked me for three weeks. What a psycho."

"Yeah but she was a correct psycho huh? I know how much it annoyed me when Karen was right. I guess being a know it all type A – it just… got to me. As annoying as it is to admit she was right."

"Crazy psycho girl was right too. She was the beginning of mine and Mark's no sex pact."

"No sex pact? Do I want to know?"

"No sex until we find a woman we want to have out babies." She paused and thought about what she had just said. "Separate women and separate babies… for the record."

"Who is Mark?"

"Mark Sloan is my best friend. He was my sex-friend for a while there… we were never really more than that. He helped me to see my attraction to women. He is a good guy. He is my hiking friend, who is hopefully looking for us now."

"And you have a no sex pact? With each-other?"

"Yeah. We both are not allowed to participate in sexual activities with each other or anyone else until we think the person we are dating may stand a chance at being 'it'."

"Sexual activities?"

"For Mark it's just sex, but with me… no kissing. Kissing leads to sex."

The blonde laughs.

"What are you like 12?"

"What?" The brunette says defensively.

"Did you hear yourself? I've worked with kids that sounded more mature than you just did."

"Yes but it's the way I have been lately. I have been a… a … woman-whore? That is not a word. I guess it's just a whore when it's woman. I have been a whore lately. And kissing? Kissing is nice, but lately, with my whoreishness I have been moving too quickly between the kissing and the sex - WAY too quickly. I have rules, like the third date rule – BROKEN. Totally broken."

"So you have stopped sleeping with people until you find someone to have a baby with?"

"It's not quite like that… it's… it's… I just wanted a little girl. I know she would be trouble. Karma is Karma after all, and I was a rotten child. Completely spoilt, I got everything I ever wanted and I was still a rotten kid. I imagined that she would ramble when she got nervous and talk back to me when she thought she was right. I imagined that she would pick up my Spanish ranting and my rapid hand movements and she'd have my temper."

"Bad?"

"Is there any other kind of temper?" She smiled and Arizona laughed. "Lately I've just had this feeling that I wanted to have a baby so badly. I've been thinking about it so much. One of the women at work, Miranda, I spoke to her about having children. She told me I had to stop sleeping with everyone." Callie chuckled at the memory "Then she told me that it was hard, that there was never a good time to have them. She also told me about teaching her son, watching him grow up into a person, even if it was just learning to say words properly. She's the ultimate bad-ass and she is so in-love with her son … I want that and I would really like it if I could find someone to share it with." She sighs and looks up. "What about you? No kids?"

"Really – nope."

"I get that."

"You do?"

"Yeah, you are here in the middle of the woods. Alone. You are either an axe murderer or shutting out something." Before Callie could go on, Arizona interrupted her.

"Thank you Doctor Walden."

"Who?"

"My ex – the shrink."

"Ah… so I'm right huh?"

"Shut up." She pouted before giving up her act and smiling a little. "So you and Mark really want babies… why don't you just have kids together. I mean, you're really good friends – so you love and trust each other, you were sex-buddies – so that part's obviously good, making the whole making babies thing way easier. And you both know exactly what you are getting."

"No. That's just…wrong."

"Well does he have blue eyes?"

"Still just – no." Callie face contorted into an expression of sheer disgust. The blonde laughed.

"Ok, so that's a no then. What about, by yourself?"

"I have the money, I have the flexibility with my job… I just… I always pictured having kids with the love of my life, building a home and a family. Having what my parents had. You know?"

Arizona's smile faded. Yep. She knew. She'd seen it every day as child. She'd heard it every day as an adult, until one day she didn't. The connection her parents had had was something that she had dreamt of getting, the love, the comfort, until one day she had found herself in a world with no connections at all. She knew exactly what Calliope had meant, because she had dreamt of it once too.


	3. Reasons and Dreams

**Chapter 3 – Reasons and Dreams**

**Title:** Help – Reasons and Dreams

**AN:** Thank you to ljuser Itsallcomealive who beta'd this for me. I really cannot thank you enough. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

She rolled over and looked at her pager immediately. Nothing. Then what woke her up? Why was she awake? There was a loud bang and for a moment she went through all the things in her apartment she could use as a weapon, before realising that it was someone knocking on the front door and it was 9 o'clock in the morning. She rolled off the couch and made her way to the door, wiping the sleep from her eyes and stretching a little. Before she opened the door she plastered a smile on her face.

She opened the door and without thinking the smile left her face and her thoughts.

She watched as the uniformed officer before her grimaced before he spoke and she knew the words he was going to say. She had done this once before, two years ago with news of her parents. She knew what it meant.

"Matthew?"

The officer nodded sadly.

It was that moment that she knew she was absolutely alone in the world.

* * *

"Arizona?"

"Yeah."

"You said you were a doctor right?"

"A long time ago."

"Can you take a look at my back?"

"What's the matter?"

"I um, I think I have an infection."

"Here I'll take a look."

The brunette did not need to hear words, when the blonde gasped she knew that it wasn't good.

"This is a gun-shot wound."

"I was shot."

"I can see that Calliope. Do you have bandages or anything with you?"

"No."

"We have to get out of here, this is really inflamed. It's looking really angry."

"Yeah, I'm still meant to be on meds, but I was only meant to be out here two days, so… I only brought what I needed."

"I need to go get help."

"How? You can barely stand, let alone walk. I don't have enough energy to help you up out of here."

"Calliope. This is bad." She ran her fingers by the gunshot wound.

"I was going to be doing a appendectomy on a little girl… Ruby. Her appendix was about to explode and I was giving her painkillers. I heard the door creak a little, and I turn around and there is a man standing by the door with a gun. I offered him some bandages and told him to leave the floor. That it was the paediatric floor and that there were only children. I thought he had left, when I turned back to comfort Ruby who was crying for her Mom, he shot me." Looking around Arizona realised she had nothing to help, so she secured the gauze back and pulled Callie's shirt back down.

"But you are Ortho? Why were you even there?"

"There has no one to cover peds since Dr Kinley died. No one ever came, I know that Webber couldn't get anyone. None of the residents could do the job."

"Webber? Richard Webber – this is Seattle Grace we are talking about?"

"Seattle Grace – Mercy West."

"You work there?"

"I work there."

"I – I was offered… I was going to start as an attending… Richard Webber offered me a job four years ago. I came to Washington, but never made it to Seattle."

"You're a surgeon?"

"I used to be, well, I was never actually an official surgeon. I finished my peds fellowship at Hopkins."

"… you were supposed to… be with me..."

Arizona looked closely at Callie and saw that more sweat had accumulated over her face and neck and her brown eyes were now closed. All she could do was stroke her cheek and pray that they would both get out of this, pray that she could get to know her more, pray that Callie's family would not have to deal with an officer knocking on their front door.

* * *

"He is crashing!"

She felt the life fade from under her fingertips, she felt like angel of death. She tried to find the problem, but she knew there wasn't one that she could solve. So while she tried her hardest and fought the hardest fight she could, she knew that it was one she wasn't going to win.

She'd been his doctor from the start, during her residency he was bought in and his smile was probably one of the reasons she had been so adamant about her specialty. She had worked with him and his family over the passed four years and now she was watching his life disappear.

It killed her because the light in his eyes, his hair even his cheeky little smirk had reminded her of Matthew. So she fought for this little boy because she was never given the opportunity to fight for her brother. As she felt him slip away she knew that this was the last straw, the last wound her heart could take.

She felt a hand on her shoulder.

"Arizona"

She kept going, kept pushing.

"Dr Robbins, call it."

She looked around and they had all stepped away from the table. They were all looking over at her. She realised that her eyes were the only part of her face they could see, and therefore they could all see the tears that were about to fall.

"Time of Death : Three forty eight." She yelled angrily. Snapping her gloves off and throwing them in the biohazard bin before stalking out of the room. Walking away from the last connection she felt with the world.

* * *

"Arizona?"

"Yep?"

"I just had a dream."

"Really… was it a good dream or a bad dream?"

"Neither."

"Oh. Well what happened?"

"You had my little girl. You got the chance."

"Really? Sounds like a nightmare." She tried to laugh a little, but knew that the situation was serious and what Callie was trying to say. Arizona felt awkward, the words had thrown her.

"I'm tired. You know? Like that tired you get when you are waiting for something that never happens you know?" The blonde nodded. "I've been waiting for something to happen for years. I'm so tired. I thought that if I told someone, if I told Bailey I was tired that something would happen. It would break the monotony of my life, but nothing happened. Nothing. I just kept on going. I did my research and developed something new and exciting and nothing happened. I won a Harper Avery… and then nothing happened. I'm so tired of nothing happening. I'm so over nothing happening."

"I know how that is."

"Yeah?"

"Before I left my job I had a lot of things happening. I was tired of things happening. I was scarred because of all these things happening. I wished they wouldn't so I packed up and headed out to the woods, where nothing would happen. At first I liked it. I still do, some days but…I'm waiting for that spark, for that something."

"What happened to you, before?" She asked tentatively.

"For me to come here?"

"Yes."

"I lost everything."

"Everything?"

"Everything."

"Did you have a partner or kid or something?"

"No. I was always too busy with work to build a family of my own, but I lost my family unit. My parents and then a couple of years later, my brother… then I lost a patient, an important patient. And I just… I lost all my connections in the world. I lost it all."

"But you had friends right? People that could help you?"

"I'm an awesome friend, but sometimes being a good friend doesn't mean that you have good friends, or that you can let people be good friends for you."

"So you shut people out?"

"Yeah, I shut people out."

"Do you regret it?"

"I'm sitting here in front of a beautiful woman what's to regret?" She smiled.

"Now I know I'm still dreaming, because there is no way you just hit on me." She said with a laugh that set her off into a groan.

"I didn't hit on you."

"You did."

"Yeah ok, a little bit."

"I get that a lot you know, injured in the woods, beautiful women throwing themselves at me… happens all the time."

"I bet it does." She smiled. She watched as Callie's expression changed from a smile to a frown. She was about to ask what was wrong, Callie interrupting her.

"I think I'm going to be sick."

Arizona crawled over to the brunette and helped her sit up, pulling the black locks behind Callie's shoulders, rubbing her back.

"Shhhh, it's ok."

"Argh. I don't know how I can be sick like this - I haven't eaten in days."

Arizona just sat and watched and kept running her hand over Callie's back, avoiding the wound that had caused this sickness, hoping that the she was in some way comforting her. There was little she could do and she knew that Callie was getting worse. She could see the signs. When she was confident that the sickness had passed, she pulled the Latina into her chest and rocked her, a little, hoping to lull her to sleep.

"I always thought I'd have this great love affair." Callie murmured into Arizona's embrace

"Hmmm?"

"When I was a kid, or even as an adult I always thought that I was destined to have this great love affair. You know the kind you read about in novels. I thought with George it was it… it was so whirlwind and quick and I was so infatuated. Then it crumpled before my eyes. Even after that I still thought I would get my love… But now."

"You'll get your love affair. Your chance meeting. You'll overcome some great obstacle. You'll get that. You'll get you're happily ever after"

"Arizona, I can barely move. I've been out here for six days, and now I'm trapped. I am not really optimistic about leaving here."

"Well you don't need to be optimistic, I'm optimistic enough for the both of us." She smiled, hoping to instill some sort of positiveity in her companion. She's given up hope and optimism, until this moment. She hadn't bought into her ideas of rainbows, miracles and fairydust for years, but now... in this moment, she desperately clung to them. Hoping they were enough to get the woman in her arms out of danger, out of here alive. "Why don't you tell me about your imaginary daughter?"

"What do you want me to tell you?"

"Anything."

"I imagined her 6th birthday. She's been begging me for a pony. For months. She's just lost her front tooth and she's using her smile against me. Her blue eyes," She pauses before smiling "because they have to be blue, shine and she's pouting this very convincing pout. She even drew a picture of the pony at school, so that I would know which one to get. I have to sit her down and talk to her about how we can't have a pony and how our backyard is too cramped and that it will make the pony sad. And when I tell her that the pony will be sad, she gets tears in her eyes, because even if she wants this pony, even if she's already in love with this pony, she doesn't want it to be sad. She doesn't want to be the reason it's sad. So when I'm done explaining that to her, and she understands why she can't have a pony to keep, that's when I show her the petting zoo I hired for her birthday that is out the back. When she sees the pony her eyes pop and I hear her giggle and it's the sound I live for."

"So she'll be spoilt just like you were then?"

"Yep, because she and her mother are my world."

"Her mother?"

"My great love affair. Remember?"

"Yeah."

"Did you ever dream of a great love?"

"I hoped for it, I may be optimistic, but I also tend to be realistic in terms of my love life. I guess I'd be happy with someone I'm comfortable with."

"Comfortable?"

"Yeah, someone I could cry in front of and not worry what they think, I could tell them my faults and they would take them in their stride. Someone who I can yell at and they could tell instantly that I was scared and not angry. Comfortable. Comforting. Love."

"You'd be happy with comfortable?"

"I'd be happy with comfortable love. I'd be happy with forever."

"Yeah forever would be nice." She smiled and closed her eyes as the blonde stroked her hair.


	4. Promises

**Help**

**Chapter Four - Promises**

**Title:** Help – Promises

**Author:** wbelisabeth

**Summary:** Insert one tragic event into Arizona's past and put MFEO to the test. AU.

**Words:** Story is under 10k. Chapter is under 2k

**Warnings/Spoiler/Important:** There are references to a lot of Callie/Arizona moments on the show, but they are usually small allusions, and not anything life changing. The references could include any episode ever aired, because that's just how I roll.

**Rating:** PG for the most part, I don't even think there is any swearing in this… very wholesome of me.

**AN:** Thank you to ljuser Itsallcomealive who beta'd this for me. I really cannot thank you enough. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Helena Torres was a proud woman which showed in every facet of her life. When you first meet her, her pride in her appearance is clear. Her string of pearls that Carlos had given her the first birthday they had been dating. Her perfectly arranged hair. Her elegant clothing. It wasn't just in appearance she took pride in, she took pride in everything she did. Her marriage, her children and her current activity of cooking for her husband.

She looked over the meal squinting to ensure that the garnishes were perfectly aligned. She valued the art in cooking and had tried to pass on her love for it to her two daughters, believing that fifty percent was better than nothing. Her eldest daughter cooked purely out of necessity, and while she had plenty of time and money, she took little pride and no joy in her attempts at feeding her family. Her youngest had begun to take a real shine to cooking often calling to share or request a recipe. Even with staggered shifts and limited time, she managed to find joy in cooking. Before the nonsense of the last couple of years had taken place she and Calliope had shared a great many phone calls, Helena hearing the joy her youngest got from putting together masterpieces and it made her swell with pride. The most recent before contact was lost was Chicken Picatta, which had turned out superbly.

She felt arms wrap around her as she wiped the plates free from residual sauce.

"Carlos, you scared me" She felt his lips kiss the back of her neck and she smiled as she took comfort in the touch of her husband.

"It smells wonderful."

"Hopefully it tastes the same."

The doorbell rings and shakes them both out of their own little world.

"I'll be a minute."

"I'll meet you at the table. If that's the insurance salesman, makes sure he knows that we said no the last four times… he might get the message."

Carlos smiled at his wife and the edge of frustration in her voice. He opened the door expecting the gentleman in the grey suit with greasy, slicked back hair. He was surprised to find a petite blonde, looking rather frightened. Behind her he saw a taxi, it was obvious that it was staying where it was.

"Can I help you, young lady?"

"Ummm…. I am Arizona Robbins, I have come to talk to you about Calliope sir. I'm afraid that you aren't going to like what I have to say."

Arizona looked Carlos Torres in the eye and what she saw made her own eyes well up with tears.

"Calliope?"

"Hmmm."

"Calliope Torres, look at me." The blonde watched as the brunettes eyes focused.

"I'm awake, I'm totally awake." She slurred her words. Arizona knew that it was the best she was going to get.

"I'm going to get help. I'm going to walk the two miles and I am going to get you help Calliope, so you have to promise me to stay alive ok. You have to make sure you are awake when I get back, ok?"

"You need to live for me. You need to have my girl. You need to promise."

"Cal, look at me. I'm going to live, my life isn't in question ok. You need to stay awake for me though. Stay awake."

She watched as Callie got agitated.

"You have to promise. You have to. She has to exist."

"Shhhh. Ok, ok I'll promise. Ok? Now you need to focus on staying awake. Don't make me go all playground Arizona on your ass. I grew up with the name Arizona and I learnt how to fight dirty so you better be awake when I get back. Ok?"

Callie nodded slightly.

Arizona had spent the last six hours carving out a ladder-like structure in the wall, after numerous collapses, she'd finally created something that looked like it would at least hold up long enough for her to get out. Or so she hoped. With one quick glance at the brunette she took her first step up the ladder in the wall. She winced before she took the second step knowing that the pain was going to be immeasurable.

It was. She screamed out loud as she quickly shuffled up the next step and the next, eventually slumping onto the ground at the top. She looked down and Callie had curled into the foetal position.

"Calliope." She whispered repeatedly to herself as she hobbled down the path that led to her home.

"This is 911, what is your emergency?"

"There is a woman two miles southwest of Ranier close. It's off the highway. She's trapped in an old mine or something, it's probably nine or ten feet deep. She's injured and has a previously existing infection that has flared up. She'll need immediate attention. I believe that she has been reported missing already. Her name is Calliope Torres. It is urgent that you get here as quick as you can. She needs urgent medical attention, antibiotics, pain meds, she is severely dehydrated and has not eaten in two or three days… you need to hurry. You understand that it is urgent? You understand?"

"Yes ma'am. Is there a contact number you can leave?"

"I won't have a cell on me, there is no signal out here… follow the directions. We won't be moving from the spot. I'll be administering fluids and maybe some food orally if I can, but she's getting pretty bad, pretty quickly."

She didn't even wait for a response before hanging up. She picked up the phone that she had taken from Calliope and scrolled down to find 'Mark' in her contacts, she typed in the number into her house phone and waited for the dial tone.

"Mark Sloan." He barked. She didn't know him, but she already recognized the sound of a sleep deprived loved one. She could hear the raw nerves in his voice.

"Mark? My name is Arizona Robbins. I understand you are a friend of Calliope's?"

"Callie? Is she ok?"

"Mark, I have called 911, they are on their way. I found Callie, she's in a bad way. They are going to take her to the local hospital, but I'm not so sure they are equipped to handle her injuries."

"I'm going to make some calls, see if I can get an airlift to Seattle."

"Perfect. I'll give you directions."

"Calliope."

Nothing.

"Calliope?" Her voice slid up an octave and more than a few decibels, as panic crept into her voice.

She climbed down as quickly as could, almost jumping before remembering the pain that still resided in her leg.

"Callie? Cal? Calliope? Come on, open those big brown eyes. Come on… please… please. Come on, I want to see you get your great love affair. I want to see you have your baby girl. Please? Come on, open your eyes." Her eyes fluttered a little and she groaned. "Don't scare me like that Calliope. Remember what I told you? I told you that I'd go all playground Arizona on you, playing dirty and it's not as fun or as sexy as it sounds - believe me. Can you drink this?" She hadn't expected an answer. She didn't expect anything more than the brunette's eyelashes to flutter, but that was enough. She tried to get Callie to drink the water, and succeeded some, but she knew it was not enough to fix anything, but it was all she could do. She put her arms around Callie and brought her close, again rocking her back and forward. "Maybe when you get better we could have that great love affair? I mean… you've already got your chance meeting. It was a million to one that I would be running past and that you'd be here, yelling for help. And you've got your complication… you're really sick, so if you overcome this… well at the very least it'd be something to tell our daughter about. You hear that? I stopped making plans Calliope, I stopped living, but I'm talking about a great love affair and I said our daughter… I don't know if I'm just telling you what you want to hear or if I really mean it, but it would be really nice to try. It would be really nice to be able to try and make plans with you. How about when we get into Seattle I take you out for a nice dinner?"

"Maybe." Callie said, the words barely leaving her lips.

"Maybe?" She laughed. "I can live with maybe, but you know I'm hot and I've got women lining up for me, right? So you better stay awake, because I won't stay on the market forever ok?"


	5. The End

**Help**

**Chapter Five – The End.**

**Warnings/Spoiler:** Some season 5 and 6, No spoilers for season 7!

**AN:** One last thank you to ljuser Itsallcomealive who beta'd this for me.

She was pacing. Ok, pacing as good as she could with a knee that was incredibly painful. She knew it was annoying, but she was anxious and when she was anxious she liked to yell. With no one to yell at she had all this energy. So she paced. It had taken them what felt like hours for them to be found and then the airlift had taken over an hour. She had seen them use paddles on people a hundred times, but never on someone she knew, and it wasn't pretty. She was met on the roof by a tall muscular man who's panicked look instantly gave away who he was. Calliope was swept away, leaving her with who she assumed was Mark Sloan. He lead her to the waiting room, where she stayed, pacing. One of the doctors she had seen meet Calliope on the roof came into the room.

"How is she?"

"Critical. We don't know how her body will react to the medication… we don't know if she was too far gone or not. It's a matter of wait and see."

The blonde noticed the disconnected use of a pronoun instead of a name. She knew it was a doctors tool, it also meant that it was not looking good. She nodded before the name on the lab coat triggered a memory.

"You're Miranda?"

The shorter woman who had started to walk away, slightly hunched over turned quickly back around. Her expression turned to one of questioning.

"Calliope. She said that you were bad-ass, and that you were in love with your son. She speaks so highly of you, I'm sure she would be happy to have you looking after her."

"Calliope?" The Attending's face turned to slight disgust before mumbling under her breath. "I told her to stop sleeping around. She's never going to have a kid if she keeps doing nasty things with strangers."

"She's my future. She's… miraculous, breathtakingly stunning… I just… we haven't… but if anyone is my future, she is. Please. Please make sure she is alright." The attending face softened. Miranda nodded before turning back and continuing on her way.

She struggled over to the waiting room chairs and waited, as patiently as she could. She couldn't believe what she had just said, she couldn't believe that after 24 hours in the woods with this woman, she was sprouting romantic words, words that two days ago she would have considered absolutely ridiculous. She couldn't believe it, but she didn't care. Thoughts raced around her mind a million miles an hours. She closed her eyes for just a second, squeezing them tight to rid her of all her thoughts. Three hours later she woke with a start, when she felt a hand on her shoulder.

"Hi." She whispered.

"Hi, I thought you might need something to eat." He smiled slightly.

"I… uh… thanks." She looked down at the sandwich and cringed. She didn't like sandwiches.

"Have you had your knee looked at?"

"She set it back. It should be fine."

"That was before you walked 4 miles."

"I'm fine." He watched as she stared at the sandwich.

"Did you maybe want to go get some dinner instead?" He looked nervous, and terrified and she remembered the discussion with Callie. She smiled. He wanted to go out with her. The man-whore wanted to take her to dinner, she didn't know whether to be flattered or angry that he would ask her out when Calliope was lying in a bed. She let herself be amused. The brunette had told her he was a nice guy, she felt compelled to believe anything Callie had said.

"Ah so I'm someone who you could have babies with then?" She laughed a little.

"What?"

"I know all about you Mark Sloan, you and your no sex-pact and how you want babies. I'm flattered by the way, super flattered. But no. I'm going to wait here until Calliope wakes up."

"Calliope?" He asked incredulously.

"Yeah."

"Ooooohh. I understand now. You play for Callie's team huh? Well that's a nice team to play on."

"Wow, Calliope's words didn't actually justify how much of a jerk you actually are."

"Aw that's sweet Blondie."

"How is she?"

"She's not got any worse, so that's something. You should still eat something, and maybe get your knee looked at." She smiled slightly and nodded in agreement.

* * *

The older gentleman walked through the house and she followed behind. She'd had the discussion about Calliope being spoilt, she just didn't realise that she could have actually had her own pony when she was six years old, or, for that matter, her own small country. The house was large and very tasteful, she noted the many pictures of the family on the walls. She saw the large family portrait of the five of them on the wall. Mr and Mrs Torres standing behind their two daughters and one son, with at least the appearance of happiness. She knew that what she had to say would rock their world.

She hated that she was the one to do it. But she was here now and so she had no choice.

* * *

She walked into the room and sat down next to the bed.

"You know, you really are well known around here. There is so much talk. The talk is good, don't get me wrong, but there is so much talk about you, and I think now about me. There isn't so much good about me, I think people want you and Mark to be together or something, because I am being treated like a leper around here, except Mark. He hit on me, by the way, for the sake of being honest. He's pretty slutty. I know you told me that he's a nice guy, and he keeps bringing me food, so I guess he kind of is, but he's still a sleaze. I mean I know I told you I had girls lining up for me, but I don't really need guys too.

"He offered to take me to the most expensive restaurant in Seattle." She looked up to see if there was a reaction. Nothing. "Not the jealous type huh? I am. I get so jealous. I threaten people with bricks… You know that jealousy is called the green-eyed monster and I believe that there is no reasoning with a monster.

"I really wish that I came to Seattle earlier. I wish that I didn't meet you down some hole in the ground and that you weren't delirious the whole time. I'm getting rather attached to you and chances are when you wake up – notice it's when and not if – when you wake up you might not even remember me.

"Ok, so I just have to say it once, I'm sure it's not going to happen but whatever… Please don't die. I wouldn't want your family to go through what I have, to lose a part of the unit. I'm the only member of my unit left. To have a police officer or the military police show up at your home… it's not nice. When my parents were killed… I had my brother, Matthew, but when he was killed in action… I didn't have anyone. I withdrew, and I shut down and shut out everything, but I let you in today or yesterday, or whatever it was, I let you in, so please don't die, for your family's sake, but also for mine."

She took Callie's hand and kissed it softly, before placing it back down on the bed, before covering it with her own, leaning her head onto the bed.

The blonde awoke to the machines going crazy, nurses ran in immediately and buzzed around her, pushing her out of the way, ushering her out of the room. It was when she saw a crash cart being wheeled into the room that she let the fear and panic take over.

* * *

Carlos led her to a large dining room with a table that sat at least ten, Arizona honestly couldn't concentrate enough to pay attention to how many seats there were, all she could think was that she would love a cigarette right now, anything to calm her nerves. This wasn't going to be welcome, this was something that could potentially break apart their unit. Shatter it into tiny pieces.

She had longed for the pieces of her own unit to be pieced back together, so she was reluctant to do it to another family, but it was better than the alternative. A cold phone call. No. this way should ease into it, or at least as much as she could.

She looked up when a woman walked in the door, she did not need to be told who she was, the eyes, the hair, the stature, she knew this was Calliope's mother. She knew. She repeated the mantra 'Good man in a storm' over and over in her head hoping it would give her courage enough to have this conversation.

"Mr and Mrs Torres, I think you may want to sit down."

* * *

She could hear the irratic beeping. She could hear shouts of 'clear'. She heard the charge and re-charge. She heard bustling and noise and lost focus. The whole world stopped, when she heard the words of the doctor to push more meds, she heard the sound of continued shocks to the brunettes body. She heard the room still. She heard the final words of the doctor.

Tears immediately pooled in her eyes.

* * *

"We haven't been to visit Mama in a long time."

"I know sweet, but we've been really busy."

"Yeah, but who's going to buy her flowers if we don't Mommy? We should buy her flowers." She smiled at her daughter. Her thoughtful daughter. She remembered the conversation a couple of days earlier about the pony, and she remembered the tears accumulating in her little eyes, just like Calliope had said they would.

"She doesn't need flowers honey. She knows you love her."

"But I want to show her my special dress... and. and. and I wrote her a letter in school today."

"What does it say?"

"That I miss her. I wish she was with us."

"I'm sure she would be missing you to, sweet."

"And my blue eyes." The little girl giggled. "Can we go? Can we visit her? She's probably all alone, I don't want her to be alone Mommy."

Her long eye lashes fluttered and it was as close as the six year old was going to get to batting her eyelashes for a very long time - or so Arizona hoped. The walk would do them good and so would the sunshine. It warmed her heart that even with Callie not around that her daughter still thought of her.

"Put on your special dress and we'll go take Mama some flowers."

* * *

As she walked back into the room there was nothing but silence. She could hear nothing. No trolleys travelling between each door, no footsteps of the many doctors walking past, no beeping of medical machines, nothing. Her ears were ringing.

She looked down at the still body on the bed, tears burning a path down her face.

She picked up the hand that she had kissed earlier. Holding it tightly as she wept.

"How's tomorrow?" The blonde looked up to where the voice came from, a question written all over her face. "You asked me to dinner... how's tomorrow?"

She smiled a relieved smile.

"I think you may be getting that great love affair after all."

* * *

She continued with her words. Calliope's parents with their heads bowed. She wasn't sure what they were thinking, if it was anger, or sadness, or just lost in their own thoughts.

"…I'm a good man in a storm, and I love your daughter, and I protect the things I love, she doesn't need it, she's strong and honourable and she's who you raised her to be. I'd like for your blessing. Calliope says she doesn't need it, but I would like it, because she is my future. We are planning on having a family one day. My parents aren't alive and I - I want our children to be surrounded by family and we have that at the hospital, we have friends who will be Aunts and Uncles and friends, but I know that Calliope is struggling without you because she's so invested in family. Family is so much a part of who she is, who we both are. I know that the last two times you have come to Seattle you have fought with Calliope about it, once when you found out and once with the priest, and both times I know that her reception has been hostile, but she really does love you. I know that this was not what you planned for your daughter, but she is happy and she's still the woman you raised her to be." She could feel her authority issues push the tears closer to spilling out her eyes. The two people on the opposite side of the table remained unmoving, so she nodded, and left the room, leaving silence in her wake.

* * *

"Calliope Robbins get down here now!"

Callie cringed to herself. She was never Calliope Robbins unless she or their daughter done something wrong. She quickly ran down the stairs hoping a quick response would curb and anger.

She watched as her daughter flung herself into the arms of her mother, shrieking 'Mommy' at the top of her lungs. She knew whatever she or their daughter had done was now forgotten, as Arizona's own laughed filled the room. Callie stopped and let the sound wash over her, because it was that sound that she lived for.

* * *

"Mama!" The six-year old ran into the room excitedly

"How is my blue eyed girl?"

"I'm good Mama! Look at my dress, isn't it super? We bought flowers and Mommy bought me heeley's but I wasn't suppose to tell and we had M&M's too, but I wasn't suppose to tell about that too."

Arizona made it into the room to hear the last part of her daughters betrayal.

"Traitor." She smiled, before walking over to her wife. "Hey" She said softly before kissing her. "We've missed you." She placed the flowers on the side table and sat down next to her wife and picked the little girl up to sit on the bed with them.

"We've missed you to." The brunette smiled, looking over to the sleeping baby.

"How's he doing?"

"He's good. He's definitely coming home tomorrow, even if he was a bit early."

"Your parents are flying in tonight. They'll be there to help out."

"We've done this before, it's not quite so daunting. They don't need to come all the way over."

"You are kidding right? I'm surprised that they aren't here already." They both laughed a little and just lazily gazed at each other.

"Thank You." Callie spoke softly.

Arizona looked at her with a questioning expression. They could always communicate without words.

"For my great love affair. For coming to Seattle. For choosing to live."

"Thank you for giving me reasons to."

* * *

Ok so that is it, I hope you enjoyed it. This will be my last fic for a long time, possibly ever... I am getting out of computer-land and trying to be a grown up for a while and see how it works for me... I might come scurrying back... who knows. But in any case I wanted to thank any one who has reviewed this story or any of my others. Best Wishes - wbelisabeth


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